It’s Prospero vs. Caliban in America, with Caliban having a very good chance of triumphing.
Author Archives: Robin Bates
Caliban Defeats Prospero
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Kamala Harris, Shakespeare, Tempest Comments closed
America: Indivisible Despite the Divides
As the American election hangs in the balance, Alicia Ostriker holds two contradictory visions of America in balance.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "I Too Sing America", "Ghazal America the Beautiful, Alicia Ostriker, America the Beautiful, American Dream, Langston Hughes, Midsummer Night's Dream, Patriotism, Star Spangled Banner, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Kamala Harris as Shakespeare’s Henry V
Kamala Harris resembles Shakespeare’s Henry V in some important ways.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Election 2024, Henry V, Kamala Harris, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Ruth: Dreaming of a Sister of the Mind
Piercy’s “The Book of Ruth and Naomi” explores the love between the two women.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Book of Ruth and Naomi", Book of Ruth, female friendship, Marge Piercy Comments closed
Halloween: “Purring in My Haunted Ear”
For Halloween, here’s one of the scariest poems that I know. In it, Robert Graves recalls a childhood nightmare after he was wounded in World War I.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Child's Nightmare", Carl Jung, Halloween, PTSD, Robert Graves Comments closed
Election Anxieties? Read Kipling’s “If”
Milbank uses a Kipling line as he begs readers not to leave the Washington Post. Kipling also provides timely advice for the last week of this election.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Election 2024, If, Jeff Bezos, Rudyard Kipling, Washington Post Comments closed
Our Lear Is Running to Be King Again
In an essay reposted from 2017 that is still relevant, I compare Trump’s narcissism with King Lear’s.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, King Lear, narcissism, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Washington Post, a Harpy of the Shore
In which I direct Oliver Wendell Holmsian indignation (as expressed in “Old Ironsides”) at the billionaire owners of “Washington Post” and “L.A. Times.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Election 2024, Jeff Bezos, LA Times, Old Ironsides, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Patrick Soon-Shiong, presidential endorsements, sane-washing, Washington Post Comments closed
